Pressure regulators for controlling the pressure of fluids in various types of systems such as paint circulating systems are well known. Such circulating systems are particularly popular for circulating materials or fluids such as paints in a production setting. Such paints can often include metallic paints which are particularly subject to degradation caused by the regulators. It has been discovered that degradation increases drastically when the fluid flow passes into the turbulent flow regime.
Heretofore, prior art regulators have typically induced turbulent flow in the process of regulating the pressure. Laminar flow regulators have been generally known as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,003,405. Also, the use of laminar flow to provide a degradation reducing device is shown in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 136,982.
It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide a regulator which may be easily and inexpensively manufactured and which will effectively regulate the pressure of a system while at the same time maintaining laminar flow generally throughout the device and minimize, if not eliminate, paint degradation.